The human body has biometric information that can identify an individual. Some types of biometric information are used for identifying and authenticating an individual. For example, fingerprint, retina, iris, face, vein, and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) are known as biometric information that can be used for authentication.
With the recent developments in biometric authentication technologies, various types of individual authentication apparatuses have become available that recognize the characteristics of a living body, i.e., a part of the human body, so as to authenticate an individual. Biometric authentication is performed by comparing biometric information obtained at the time of registration (registration template) with biometric information obtained at the time of authentication so as to determine the authenticity. The accuracy of such authentication using biometric information needs to be further improved in order to improve the usability of the biometric authentication apparatuses.
Some of the factors that reduce the accuracy of authentication using biometric information include aging of living bodies, changes in the ambient environment such as changes in the outside light, and improper operation by a person to be authenticated such as a change in the position of a biometric information source part.
Moreover, since the source from which the information is acquired is a living body, a wound, a state change due a disease or the like, and dirt due to vital activities or daily activities that are present in the biometric information source part might obstruct identification of individuals.
There has been proposed an information processing apparatus that detects a change in a biometric information source part that might obstruct identification of individuals, and excludes a region in which the change is present from a region to be used for verification (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2002-329205).
However, such a change in the biometric information source part might occur not only at the time of verification, but also at the time of registration. Moreover, such a change in the biometric information source part may be temporary for the living body (such as a wound that heals), or may be permanent to the living body (such as a wound that does not heal, and a congenital abnormality).